America and the Great War PDF - Chapter 21 - Brinkley

Chapter 21 AMERICA AND THE GREAT WAR AN APPEAL TO DUTY This most famous of all American war posters, by the artist James Montgomery Flagg, shows a fierce-looking Uncle Sam requesting, almost demanding,Americans to join the army to fight in World War I.With the nation very divided ove...

Chapter 21 AMERICA AND THE GREAT WAR AN APPEAL TO DUTY This most famous of all American war posters, by the artist James Montgomery Flagg, shows a fierce-looking Uncle Sam requesting, almost demanding,Americans to join the army to fight in World War I.With the nation very divided over the wisdom of entering the war, the Wilson administration believed it needed to persuade Americans not only to support the struggle but also—something unusual for Americans—to feel a sense of obligation to the government and its overseas commitments. (National Archives and Records Administration) T HE GREAT WAR, AS IT WAS KNOWN to a generation unaware that another, greater war would soon follow, began relatively inconspicuously in August 1914 when forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire invaded the tiny Balkan nation of Serbia. Within weeks, however, it had grown into a widespread conflagration, engaging the armies of almost all the major nations of Europe and shattering forever the delicate balance of power that had maintained a general peace on the Continent since the early nineteenth century. SIGNIFICANT EVENTS 1903 ◗ United States orchestrates Panamanian independence; new government signs treaty allowing United States to build Panama Canal 1904 ◗ “Roosevelt Corollary” announced 1905 ◗ Roosevelt mediates settlement of Russo-Japanese War 1906 ◗ American troops intervene in Cuba 1909 ◗ U.S. troops intervene in Nicaragua 1910 ◗ Porfirio Díaz overthrown by Francisco Madero in Most Americans looked on with horror as the war became the most savage Mexico in history, but also with a conviction that the conflict had little to do with them. 1913 ◗ Victoriano Huerta overthrows Madero in Mexico 1914 ◗ World War I begins In that, they were profoundly mistaken. The United States in 1914 had been ◗ Coalminers’ strike in Ludlow, Colorado, ends in deeply involved in the life of the world since at least the Spanish-American massacre of thirty-nine people ◗ Panama Canal opens War; and in the early years of the twentieth century—under three internationally ◗ Venustiano Carranza deposes Huerta in Mexico active presidents—the nation took on many more international commitments and 1915 ◗ Great Migration of blacks to the North begins obligations. And so it should not have been surprising that the United States finally ◗ Lusitania torpedoed ◗ Wilson launches preparedness program entered the war in 1917. ◗ U.S. troops intervene in Haiti In doing so, it joined the most savage conflict in history. The fighting had 1916 ◗ Sussex attacked ◗ Wilson reelected president already dragged on for two and a half years, inconclusive, almost inconceivably ◗ U.S. troops pursue Pancho Villa into Mexico murderous. By 1917, the war had left Europe exhausted 1917 ◗ Germany announces unrestricted submarine warfare Total War and on the brink of utter collapse. By the time it ended ◗ Zimmermann telegram disclosed ◗ Russian czar overthrown late in 1918, Germany had lost nearly 2 million soldiers in battle, Russia 1.7 mil- ◗ United States declares war on Central Powers lion, France 1.4 million, Great Britain 900,000. A generation of European youth ◗ Selective Service Act passed was decimated; centuries of political, social, and economic traditions were ◗ War Industries Board created ◗ Espionage Act passed damaged and all but destroyed. ◗ Race conflicts in East St. Louis, Illinois, and Houston For America, however, the war was the source of a very different experience. ◗ Bolshevik Revolution in Russia ◗ United States recognizes Carranza government As a military struggle, it was brief, decisive, and—in relative terms—without 1918 ◗ Wilson announces Fourteen Points great cost. Only 112,000 American soldiers died in the conflict, half of them ◗ New Bolshevik government in Russia signs a from influenza and other diseases rather than in combat. Economically, it was separate peace with Central Powers ◗ Sedition Act passed the source of a great industrial boom, which helped spark the years of prosperity ◗ U.S. troops repel Germans at Château-Thierry and that would follow. And the war propelled the United States into a position of Rheims ◗ U.S. troops launch offensive in Argonne Forest international preeminence. ◗ Armistice ends war (November 11) In other respects, World War I was a painful, even traumatic experience for ◗ American troops land in Soviet Union ◗ Republicans gain control of Congress the American people. At home, the nation became preoccupied with a search ◗ Paris Peace Conference convenes not just for victory but also for social unity—a search that continued and even 1919 ◗ Treaty of Versailles signed intensified in the troubled years following the armistice, and that helped shatter ◗ Senate proposes modifications to treaty ◗ Wilson suffers stroke many of the progressive ideals of the first years of the century. And abroad, once ◗ Senate rejects treaty the conflict ended, the United States encountered frustration and disillusionment. ◗ Economy experiences postwar inflation The “war to end all wars,” the war “to make the world safe for democracy,” ◗ Race riots break out in Chicago and other cities ◗ Workers engage in steel strike and other unrest became neither. Instead, it led directly to twenty years of international instability ◗ Soviet Union creates Comintern that would ultimately generate another great conflict. ◗ Theodore Roosevelt dies 1920 ◗ Nineteenth Amendment gives suffrage to women ◗ Economic recession disrupts economy ◗ Federal government reacts to “radicalism” with Palmer Raids and Red Scare ◗ Sacco and Vanzetti charged with murder ◗ Warren G. Harding elected president 1924 ◗ Woodrow Wilson dies 1927 ◗ Sacco and Vanzetti executed 601 602 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE THE “BIG STICK”: AMERICA Roosevelt believed that an important distinction existed AND THE WORLD, 1901–1917 between the “civilized” and “uncivilized” nations of the world. “Civilized” nations, as he defined them, were predominantly Racial and Economic To the general public, foreign affairs remained largely Basis of Roosevelt’s remote. Walter Lippmann once wrote: “I cannot remem- white and Anglo-Saxon or Teu- Diplomacy ber taking any interest whatsoever in foreign affairs until tonic; “uncivilized” nations were after the outbreak of the First World War.” But to Theodore generally nonwhite, Latin, or Slavic. But racism was only Roosevelt and later presidents, that made foreign affairs partly the basis of the distinction. Equally important was even more appealing. There the president could act with economic development. He believed, therefore, that Japan, less regard for the Congress or the courts.There he could a rapidly industrializing society, had earned admission to free himself from concerns about public opinion. Over- the ranks of the civilized. A civilized society, he argued, had seas, the president could exercise power unfettered and the right and duty to intervene in the affairs of a “backward” alone. nation to preserve order and stability. That belief was one important reason for Roosevelt’s early support of the devel- opment of American sea power. By 1906, the American navy Roosevelt and “Civilization” had attained a size and strength surpassed only by that of Great Britain (although Germany was fast gaining ground). Theodore Roosevelt believed in the value and importance of using American power in the world (a conviction he once described by citing the proverb “Speak softly, but Protecting the “Open Door” in Asia carry a big stick”). But he had two different standards for In 1904, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on the using that power. Russian fleet at Port Arthur in southern Manchuria, a “THE NEW DIPLOMACY” This 1904 drawing by the famous Puck cartoonist Louis Dalrymple conveys the new image of America as a great power that Theodore Roosevelt was attempting to project to the world. Roosevelt the world policeman deals effectively with “less civilized” peoples (Asians and Latin Americans, seen clamoring at left) by using the “big stick” and deals equally effectively with the “civilized” nations (at right) by offering arbitration. (Culver Pictures, Inc.)  AMERICA AND THE GREAT WAR 603 UNITED STATES AT L A N T I C OCEAN CUBA U.S. troops 1898–1902 DOMINICAN 1906–1909 REPUBLIC 1917–1922 U.S. troops Gulf of Protectorate 1916–1924 Mexico 1898–1934 Financial VIRGIN supervision ISLANDS Bahía Honda 1905–1941 Purchased from 1903–1912 Denmark MEXICO 1917 Military intervention Guantánamo Bay 1914, 1916–1919 1903– PUERTO HAITI RICO BRITISH HONDURAS U.S. troops Acquired from Spain 1915–1934 1898 Veracruz Mexico HONDURAS C a r i b b e a n Financial City Sea supervision NICARAGUA 1915–1941 U.S. Troops 1909–1910 PA C I F I C 1912–1925, 1926–1933 Final supervision OCEAN GUATEMALA VENEZUELA 1911–1924 Settlement of EL SALVADOR CANAL ZONE* boundary dispute COSTA BRITISH Control over canal 1895–1896 GUIANA RICA beginning 1904 U.S. territory, 1900 PANAMA Support of revolution U.S. interventions 1903 COLOMBIA Naval base * Canal Zone not a possession leased to U.S. but controlled through a lease from Panama THE UNITED STATES AND LATIN AMERICA, 1895–1941 Except for Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Canal Zone, the United States had no formal possessions in Latin America and the Caribbean in the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth. But as this map reveals, the U.S. exercised considerable influence in these regions throughout this period—political and economic influence, augmented at times by military intervention. Note the particularly intrusive presence of the United States in the affairs of Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic—as well as the canal-related interventions in Colombia and Panama. ◆ What were some of the most frequent reasons for American intervention in Latin America? For an interactive version of this map, go to www.mhhe.com/brinkley13ech21maps province of China that both Russia and Japan hoped to because the ships were temporarily painted white for the control. Roosevelt, hoping to prevent either nation from voyage) on an unprecedented journey around the world becoming dominant there, agreed to a Japanese request that included a call on Japan. to mediate an end to the conflict. Russia, faring badly in the war, had no choice but to agree. At a peace confer- ence in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1905, Roosevelt The Iron-Fisted Neighbor extracted from the embattled Russians a recognition of Roosevelt took a particular interest in events in what he Japan’s territorial gains and from the Japanese an agree- (and most other Americans) considered the nation’s spe- ment to cease the fighting and expand no further. At the cial sphere of interest: Latin America. He established a pat- same time, he negotiated a secret agreement with the Jap- tern of American intervention in the region that would anese to ensure that the United States could continue to long survive his presidency. trade freely in the region. Early in 1902, the financially troubled government of Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his Venezuela began to renege on debts to European bankers. work in ending the Russo-Japanese War. But in the years Naval forces of Britain, Italy, and Germany blockaded the that followed, relations between the United States and Venezuelan coast in response. Then German ships began Japan steadily deteriorated. Japan now emerged as the to bombard a Venezuelan port amid rumors that Germany preeminent naval power in the planned to establish a permanent base in the region. “Great White Fleet” Pacific and soon began to exclude Roosevelt used the threat of American naval power to American trade from many of the territories it controlled. pressure the German navy to withdraw. To be sure the Japanese government recognized the The incident helped persuade Roosevelt that European power of the United States, he sent sixteen battleships of intrusions into Latin America could result not only from the new American navy (known as the “Great White Fleet” aggression but also from instability or irresponsibility 604 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (such as defaulting on debts) within the Latin American demand a higher payment from the Americans plus a nations themselves. As a result, share of the payment to the French. “Roosevelt Corollary” in 1904 he announced what Roosevelt was furious and began to look for ways to came to be known as the “Roosevelt Corollary” to the circumvent the Colombian government. Philippe Bunau- Monroe Doctrine. The United States, he claimed, had Varilla, chief engineer of the Panamanian Revolt the right not only to oppose European intervention in French canal project, was a ready the Western Hemisphere but also to intervene in the ally. In November 1903, he helped organize and finance a domestic affairs of its neighbors if those neighbors revolution in Panama. There had been many previous proved unable to maintain order and national sover- revolts, all of them failures, but this one had the support eignty on their own. of the United States. Roosevelt landed troops from the The immediate motivation for the Roosevelt Corollary, U.S.S. Nashville in Panama to “maintain order.”Their pres- and the first opportunity for using it, was a crisis in the ence prevented Colombian forces from suppressing the Dominican Republic. A revolution had toppled its corrupt rebellion, and three days later Roosevelt recognized Pan- and bankrupt government in 1903, but the new regime ama as an independent nation. The new Panamanian gov- proved no better able to make good on the country’s ernment quickly agreed to the terms the Colombian $22 million in debts to European nations. Roosevelt estab- senate had rejected. Work on the canal proceeded rapidly, lished, in effect, an American receivership, assuming con- and it opened in 1914. trol of Dominican customs and distributing 45 percent of the revenues to the Dominicans and the rest to foreign Taft and “Dollar Diplomacy” creditors.This arrangement lasted, in one form or another, Like his predecessor, William Howard Taft worked to for more than three decades. advance the nation’s economic interests overseas. But he In 1902, the United States granted political indepen- showed little interest in Roosevelt’s larger vision of world dence to Cuba, but only after the new government had stability. Taft’s secretary of state, the corporate attorney agreed to the Platt Amendment Platt Amendment Philander C. Knox, worked aggressively to extend to its constitution (see p. 560). American investments into less-developed regions. Critics The amendment gave the United States the right to pre- called his policies “Dollar Diplomacy.” vent any other foreign power from intruding into the new It was particularly visible in the Caribbean.When a rev- nation. In 1906, when domestic uprisings seemed to olution broke out in Nicaragua in 1909, the administration threaten the internal stability of the island, American quickly sided with the insurgents troops landed in Cuba, quelled the fighting, and remained Intervention (who had been inspired to revolt there for three years. in Nicaragua by an American mining company) and sent troops into the country to seize the customs The Panama Canal houses. As soon as peace was restored, Knox encouraged American bankers to offer substantial loans to the new The most celebrated accomplishment of Roosevelt’s pres- government, thus increasing Washington’s financial lever- idency was the construction of the Panama Canal, which age over the country. When the new pro-American gov- linked the Atlantic and the Pacific. At first, Roosevelt and ernment faced an insurrection less than two years later, many others favored a route across Nicaragua, which Taft again landed troops in Nicaragua, this time to protect would permit a sea-level canal requiring no locks. But the existing regime. The troops remained there for more they soon turned instead to the narrow Isthmus of Pan- than a decade. ama in Colombia, the site of an earlier, failed effort by a French company to construct a channel. Although the Panama route was not at sea level (and would thus require Diplomacy and Morality locks), it was shorter than the one in Nicaragua. And con- Woodrow Wilson entered the presidency with relatively struction was already about 40 percent complete. When little interest or experience in international affairs. Yet he the French company lowered the price for its holdings, faced international challenges of a scope and gravity the United States chose Panama. unmatched by those of any president before him. In many Roosevelt dispatched John Hay, his secretary of state, respects, he continued—and even strengthened—the to negotiate an agreement with Colombian diplomats in Roosevelt-Taft approach to foreign policy. Washington that would allow construction to begin with- Having already seized control of the finances of the out delay. Under heavy American pressure, the Colombian Dominican Republic in 1905, the United States estab- chargé d’affaires,Tomas Herrén, unwisely signed an agree- lished a military government there in 1916. The military ment giving the United States perpetual rights to a six- occupation lasted eight years. In neighboring Haiti,Wilson mile-wide “canal zone” across Colombia. The outraged landed the marines in 1915 to quell a revolution, in the Colombian senate refused to ratify it. Colombia then sent course of which a mob had murdered an unpopular presi- a new representative to Washington with instructions to dent. American military forces remained in the country  AMERICA AND THE GREAT WAR 605 OPENING THE PANAMA CANAL The great Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal open in October 1914 to admit the first ship to pass through the channel. The construction of the canal was one of the great engineering feats of the early twentieth century. But the heavy-handed political efforts of Theodore Roosevelt were at least equally important to its completion. (Bettmann/Corbis) until 1934, and American officers drafted the new Haitian ronment for American investments in Mexico. Before it constitution adopted in 1918. When Wilson began to fear could do so, however, the new government murdered that the Danish West Indies might be about to fall into the Madero, and Woodrow Wilson took office in Washington. hands of Germany, he bought the colony from Denmark The new president instantly announced that he would and renamed it the Virgin Islands. Concerned about the never recognize Huerta’s “government of butchers.” possibility of European influence in Nicaragua, he signed At first, Wilson hoped that simply by refusing to recog- a treaty with that country’s government ensuring that no nize Huerta he could help topple the regime and bring to other nation would build a canal there and winning for power the opposing Constitutionalists, led by Venustiano the United States the right to intervene in Nicaragua to Carranza. But when Huerta, with the support of American protect American interests. business interests, established a full military dictatorship But Wilson’s view of America’s role in the world was in October 1913, the president became more assertive. In not entirely similar to the views of his predecessors, as April 1914, an officer in Huerta’s army briefly arrested became clear in his dealings with several American sailors from the U.S.S. Dolphin who had Wilson’s Moral Mexico. For many years, under gone ashore in Tampico. The men were immediately Diplomacy the friendly auspices of the cor- released, but the American admiral—unsatisfied with the rupt dictator Porfirio Díaz, American businessmen had apology he received—demanded that the Huerta forces been establishing an enormous economic presence in fire a twenty-one-gun salute to the American flag as a pub- Mexico. In 1910, however, Díaz had been overthrown by lic display of penance.The Mexicans refused. Wilson used the popular leader Francisco Madero, who seemed hostile the trivial incident as a pretext for seizing the Mexican to American businesses in Mexico. The United States qui- port of Veracruz. etly encouraged a reactionary general, Victoriano Huerta, Wilson had envisioned a bloodless action, but in a clash to depose Madero early in 1913, and the Taft administra- with Mexican troops in Veracruz, Veracruz tion, in its last weeks in office, prepared to recognize the the Americans killed 126 of the new Huerta regime and welcome back a receptive envi- defenders and suffered 19 casualties of their own. Now at 606 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE PANCHO VILLA AND HIS TROOPS Pancho Villa (fourth from left in the front row) poses with some of the leaders of his army, whose members Americans came to consider bandits once they began staging raids across the U.S. border. He was a national hero in Mexico. (Brown Brothers) the brink of war, Wilson began to look for a way out. His in which forty Mexicans and twelve Americans died.Again, show of force, however, had helped strengthen the posi- the United States and Mexico stood at the brink of war. But tion of the Carranza faction, which captured Mexico City at the last minute, Wilson drew back. He quietly withdrew in August and forced Huerta to flee the country. At last, it American troops from Mexico, and in March 1917, he at seemed, the crisis might be over. last granted formal recognition to the Carranza regime. By But Wilson was not yet satisfied. He reacted angrily now, however,Wilson’s attention was turning elsewhere— when Carranza refused to accept American guidelines for to the far greater international crisis engulfi ng the the creation of a new government, and he briefly consid- European continent and ultimately much of the world. ered throwing his support to still another aspirant to lead- ership: Carranza’s erstwhile lieutenant Pancho Villa, who was now leading a rebel army of his own. When Villa’s THE ROAD TO WAR military position deteriorated, however,Wilson abandoned The causes of the war in Europe—indeed the question of him and finally, in October 1915, granted preliminary rec- whether there were any significant causes at all, or whether ognition to the Carranza government. By now, however, the entire conflict was the result of a tragic series of he had created yet another crisis. Villa, angry at what he blunders—have been the subject of continued debate for considered an American betrayal, retaliated in January more than ninety years. What is clear is that the European 1916 by shooting sixteen American mining engineers in nations had by 1914 created an unusually precarious northern Mexico.Two months later, he led his soldiers (or international system that careened into war very quickly “bandits,” as the United States called them) across the bor- on the basis of what most historians agree was a relatively der into Columbus, New Mexico, where they killed seven- minor series of provocations. teen more Americans. With the permission of the Carranza government, Wilson ordered General John J. Pershing to lead an Ameri- The Collapse of the European Peace can expeditionary force across the Mexican border in The major powers of Europe were organized by 1914 in pursuit of Villa. The American two great, competing alliances.The “Triple Entente” linked Intervention in Mexico troops never found Villa, but they Britain, France, and Russia. The Competing Alliances did engage in two ugly skirmishes with Carranza’s army, “Triple Alliance” united Germany,  AMERICA AND THE GREAT WAR 607 the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy. The chief rivalry, however, was not between the two alliances, but between the great powers that dominated them: Great Britain and Germany—the former long established as the world’s most powerful colonial and commercial nation, the latter ambitious to expand its own empire and become at least Britain’s equal. The Anglo-German rivalry may have been the most important underlying source of the tensions that led to World War I, but it was not the immediate cause of its outbreak. The conflict emerged most directly out of a controversy involving nationalist movements within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the tottering empire, was assassinated while paying a state visit to Sarajevo. Sarajevo was the capital of Bosnia, a province of Austria- Hungary that Slavic nationalists wished to annex to neigh- boring Serbia; the archduke’s assassin was a Serbian nationalist. This local controversy quickly escalated through the workings of the system of alliances that the great powers had constructed. With support from Germany, Austria- Hungary launched a punitive assault on Serbia.The Serbi- ans called on Russia to help with their defense. The Russians began mobilizing their army on July 30. Things quickly careened out of control. By August 3, Germany PROMOTING THE WAR IN AUSTRALIA The government of Australia at had declared war on both Russia and France and had times had difficulty persuading men to sign up to fight in World War I, invaded Belgium in preparation for a thrust across the which some Australians believed was being fought to aid the British and had nothing to do with them. This poster was part of a drive to French border. On August 4, Great Britain—ostensibly to recruit volunteers in 1915. (Private Collection) honor its alliance with France, but more importantly to blunt the advance of its principal rival—declared war on Germany. Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire for- exaggerated by British propagandists, strengthened the mally began hostilities on August 6. Italy, although an ally hostility of many Americans toward Germany. of Germany in 1914, remained neutral at first and later Economic realities also made it impossible for the entered the war on the side of the British and French. United States to deal with the belligerents on equal terms. The Ottoman Empire (centered in Turkey) and other, The British had imposed a naval blockade on Germany to smaller nations all joined the fighting later in 1914 or prevent munitions and supplies Economic Ties to Britain in 1915. Within less than a year, virtually the entire from reaching the enemy. As a European continent and part of Asia were embroiled in a neutral, the United States had the right, in theory, to trade major war. with Germany. A truly neutral response to the blockade would have been to stop trading with Britain as well. But while the United States could survive an interruption of Wilson’s Neutrality its relatively modest trade with the Central Powers, it Wilson called on his fellow citizens in 1914 to remain could not easily weather an embargo on its much more “impartial in thought as well as deed.” But that was impos- extensive trade with the Allies, particularly when war sible, for several reasons. Some Americans sympathized orders from Britain and France soared after 1914, helping with the German cause (German Americans because of to produce one of the greatest economic booms in the affection for Germany, Irish Americans because of hatred nation’s history. So America tacitly ignored the blockade of Britain). Many more (including Wilson himself ) sympa- of Germany and continued trading with Britain. By 1915, thized with Britain. Wilson himself was only one of many the United States had gradually transformed itself from a Americans who fervently admired England—its traditions, neutral power into the arsenal of the Allies. its culture, its political system; almost instinctively, The Germans, in the meantime, were resorting to a these Americans attributed to the cause of the Allies new and, in American eyes, barbaric tactic: submarine (Britain, France, Italy, Russia) a moral quality that they warfare. Unable to challenge British domination on the denied to the Central Powers (Germany, the Austro- ocean’s surface, Germany began early in 1915 to use the Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire). Lurid reports newly improved submarine to try to stem the flow of sup- of German atrocities in Belgium and France, skillfully plies to England. Enemy vessels, the Germans announced, 608 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE would be sunk on sight. Months Theodore Roosevelt), was more likely than he to lead the Lusitania later, on May 7, 1915, a German nation into war. And when pro-war rhetoric became par- submarine sank the British passenger liner Lusitania ticularly heated, Wilson spoke defiantly of the nation without warning, causing the deaths of 1,198 people, 128 being “too proud to fight.” He ultimately won reelection of them Americans. The ship was, it later became clear, by a small margin: fewer than 600,000 popular votes and carrying both passengers and munitions; but most only 23 electoral votes.The Democrats retained a precarious Americans considered the attack what Theodore Roo- control over Congress. sevelt called it:“an act of piracy.” Wilson angrily demanded that Germany promise not to A War for Democracy repeat such outrages and that the Central Powers affirm The election was behind him, and tensions between the their commitment to neutral rights. The Germans finally United States and Germany remained high. But Wilson agreed to Wilson’s demands, but tensions between the still required a justification for American intervention nations continued. Early in 1916, in response to an that would unite public opinion and satisfy his own sense announcement that the Allies were now arming merchant of morality. In the end, he created that rationale himself. ships to sink submarines, Germany proclaimed that it The United States, Wilson insisted, had no material aims would fire on such vessels without warning. A few weeks in the conflict. Rather, the nation was committed to using later it attacked the unarmed French steamer Sussex, the war as a vehicle for constructing a new world order, injuring several American passengers. Again Wilson one based on some of the same progressive ideals that demanded that Germany abandon its “unlawful” tactics; had motivated reform in America. In a speech before again the German government relented, still hoping to Congress in January 1917, he presented a plan for a post- keep America out of the war. war order in which the United States would help main- tain peace through a permanent league of nations—a Preparedness Versus Pacifism peace that would ensure self-determination for all Despite the president’s increasing bellicosity in 1916, he was still far from ready to commit the United States to war. One obstacle was American domestic politics. Fac- 7 3 5 6 ing a difficult battle for reelection, Wilson could not 5 12 44 ignore the powerful factions that continued to oppose 4 18 5 13 45 3 15 5 intervention. 13 38 7 3 8 14 The question of whether America should make military 4 29 15 24 3 13 6 8 12 and economic preparations for war provided the first issue 10 18 13 8 over which pacifists and interventionists could openly 12 3 10 12 3 9 9 debate. Wilson at first sided with the anti-preparedness 14 10 12 forces, denouncing the idea of an American military 20 10 buildup as needless and provocative. As tensions between 6 the United States and Germany grew, however, he changed his mind. In the fall of 1915, he endorsed an ambitious pro- posal for a large and rapid increase in the nation’s armed forces. Amid expressions of outrage from pacifists in Con- Candidate (Party) Electoral Vote Popular Vote (%) gress and elsewhere, he worked hard to win approval of it, Charles E. Hughes 8,538,221 (Republican) 254 (46.2) even embarking on a national speaking tour early in 1916 to arouse support for the proposal. Woodrow Wilson 277 9,129,606 (Democratic) (49.4) Still, the peace faction wielded considerable political A. L. Benson 585,113 — strength, as became clear at the Democratic Convention (Socialist) (3.2) in the summer of 1916.The convention became especially Other parties — (Prohibition; Socialist Labor) 233,909 enthusiastic when the keynote speaker punctuated his list of Wilson’s diplomatic 61.6% of electorate voting 1916 Election achievements with the chant ELECTION OF 1916 Woodrow Wilson had good reason to be “What did we do? What did we do?... We didn’t go to concerned about his reelection prospects in 1916. He had won only war! We didn’t go to war!” That speech helped produce about 42 percent of the vote in 1912, and the Republican Party— one of the most prominent slogans of Wilson’s reelection which had been divided four years earlier—was now reunited around campaign: “He kept us out of war.” During the campaign, the popular Charles Evans Hughes. In the end, Wilson won a narrow victory over Hughes with just under 50 percent of the vote and an Wilson did nothing to discourage those who argued that even narrower margin in the electoral college. Note the striking the Republican candidate, the progressive New York gov- regional character of his victory. ◆ How did Wilson use the war in ernor Charles Evans Hughes (supported by the bellicose Europe to bolster his election prospects?  AMERICA AND THE GREAT WAR 609 nations, a “peace without victory.” These were, Wilson On the rainy evening of April 2, two weeks after believed, goals worth fighting for if there was sufficient German submarines had torpedoed three American ships, provocation. Provocation came quickly. Wilson appeared before a joint session of Congress and In January, after months of inconclusive warfare in the asked for a declaration of war: trenches of France, the military leaders of Germany It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into decided on one last dramatic gamble to achieve victory. war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, They launched a series of major assaults on the enemy’s civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the lines in France. At the same time, they began unrestricted right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for submarine warfare (against American as well as Allied the things which we have always carried nearest our ships) to cut Britain off from vital supplies. The Allied hearts—for democracy, for the right of those who submit defenses would collapse, they hoped, before the United to authority to have a voice in their own Governments, States could intervene. The new German policy made for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal American entry into the war vir- dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as Zimmermann Telegram shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the tually inevitable. Two additional world itself at last free. events helped clear the way. On February 25, the British gave Wilson a telegram intercepted from the German for- Even then, opposition remained. For four days, pacifists eign minister, Arthur Zimmermann, to the government of in Congress carried on a futile struggle.When the declara- Mexico. It proposed that in the event of war between Ger- tion of war finally passed on April 6, fifty representatives many and the United States, the Mexicans should join with and six senators voted against it. Germany against the Americans to regain their “lost prov- inces” ( Texas and much of the rest of the American South- west) when the war was over.Widely publicized by British “WAR WITHOUT STINT” propagandists and in the American press, the Zimmer- mann telegram inflamed public opinion and helped build Armies on both sides in Europe were decimated and popular sentiment for war. A few weeks later, in March exhausted by the time of Woodrow Wilson’s declaration 1917, a revolution in Russia toppled the reactionary czarist of war. The German offensives of early 1917 had failed to regime and replaced it with a new, republican government. produce an end to the struggle, and French and British The United States would now be spared the embarrass- counteroffensives had accom- Stalemate ment of allying itself with a despotic monarchy. plished little beyond adding to THE WARTIME DRAFT This office in New York handled hundreds of men every day who arrived to enlist in response to draft notices. Although both the Union and the Confederacy had tried (and often failed) to use the draft during the Civil War, the World War I draft was the first centrally organized effort by the federal government to require military service from its citizens. Although some Americans evaded the draft in 1917 and 1918 (and were reviled by others as “shirkers”), most of those drafted complied with the law. (Brown Brothers) 610 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE the casualties. The Allies looked to the United States for The American Expeditionary Force help. Wilson, who had called on the nation to wage war There were only about 120,000 soldiers in the army in “without stint or limit,” was ready to oblige. 1917, and perhaps 80,000 more in the National Guard. Neither group had any combat experience; and except for the small number of officers who had participated in the Entering the War Spanish-American War two decades before and the Mexi- By the spring of 1917, Great Britain was suffering such can intervention of 1916, few commanders had any expe- vast losses from attacks by German submarines—one of rience in battle either. every four ships setting sail from British ports never Some politicians urged a voluntary recruitment pro- returned—that its ability to continue receiving vital sup- cess to raise the needed additional forces. Among the plies from across the Atlantic was in question. Within advocates of this approach was Theodore Roosevelt, now weeks of joining the war, a fleet of American destroyers old and ill, who swallowed his hatred of Wilson and called began aiding the British navy in its assault on German sub- on him at the White House with an offer to raise a regi- marines. Other American warships escorted merchant ves- ment to fight in Europe. But the president and his secre- sels across the Atlantic. Americans also helped sow tary of war, Newton D. Baker, decided that only a national anti-submarine mines in the North Sea. The results were draft could provide the needed men; and despite the pro- dramatic. Sinkings of Allied ships had totaled nearly tests of those who agreed with House Speaker Champ 900,000 tons in the month of April 1917; by December, the Clark that “there is precious little difference between a figure had dropped to 350,000, and by October 1918 to conscript and a convict,” he won Selective Service Act 112,000. The convoys also helped the United States pro- passage of the Selective Service tect its own soldiers en route to Europe. No American Act in mid-May. The draft brought nearly 3 million men troop ship was lost at sea in World War I. into the army; another 2 million joined various branches Many Americans had hoped that providing naval assis- of the armed services voluntarily. Together, they formed tance alone would be enough to turn the tide in the war, what became known as the American Expeditionary but it quickly became clear that American ground forces Force (AEF ). would also be necessary to shore up the tottering Allies. It was the first time in American history that any sub- Britain and France had few re- stantial number of soldiers and sailors had fought over- Russian Revolution maining reserves. By early 1918, seas for an extended period. The military did its best to Russia had withdrawn from the war. After the Bolshevik keep up morale among men who spent most of their time Revolution in November 1917, the new government, led living in the trenches. They were frequently shelled and by V. I. Lenin, negotiated a hasty and costly peace with the even when calm were muddy, polluted, and infested with Central Powers, thus freeing additional German troops to rats. But when soldiers had time away from the front, they fight on the western front. were usually less interested in the facilities the Red Cross A WOMEN’S MOTOR CORPS Although the most important new role that women performed during World War I was probably working in factories that male workers had left, many women also enlisted in auxiliary branches of the military—among them these uniformed women who served as drivers for the army. (Culver Pictures, Inc.)  AMERICA AND THE GREAT WAR 611 tried to make available for them than in exploring the bars The experience of American troops during World War I and brothels of local towns. More than one in every ten was very different from those of other nations, which had American soldiers in Europe contracted venereal disease already been fighting for nearly four years by the time the during World War I, which inspired elaborate official efforts U.S. forces arrived in significant numbers. British, French, to prevent infection and to treat it when it occurred. German, and other troops had by then spent years living In some respects, the AEF was the most diverse fighting in the vast network of trenches that had been dug into force the United States had ever assembled. For the first the French countryside. Modern weapons made conven- time, women were permitted to enlist in the military— tional, frontal battles a recipe for mass suicide. Instead, the more than ten thousand in the navy and a few hundred in two sides relied on heavy shelling of each other’s trenches the marines. They were not allowed to participate in com- and occasional, usually inconclusive, and always murder- bat, but they served auxiliary roles in hospitals and offices. ous assaults across the “no-man’s land” dividing them. Life Nearly 400,000 black soldiers enlisted in or were drafted into the army and navy as well. (The marines would not accept them.) And while most of them per- formed menial tasks on military African-American bases in the United States, more Soldiers than 50,000 went to France. African-American soldiers served in segregated, all-black units under white commanders; and even in Europe, most of them were assigned to noncombat duty. But some black units fought valiantly in the great offensives of 1918. Most African-American soldiers learned to live with the racism they encountered—in part because they hoped their mili- tary service would ultimately improve their status. But a few responded to provocations violently. In August 1917, a group of black soldiers in Houston, subjected to con- tinuing abuse by people in the community, used military weapons to kill seventeen whites. Thirteen black soldiers were hanged, and another forty were sentenced to life terms in military jails. Having assembled this first genuinely national army, the War Department permitted the American Psychologi- cal Association to study it. The psychologists gave thou- sands of soldiers new tests designed to measure in- telligence: the “Intelligence Quotient,” or “IQ,” test and other newly designed aptitude tests. In fact, the tests were less effective in measuring intelligence than in measuring education; and they reflected the educational expecta- tions of the white middle-class people who had devised them. Half the whites and the vast majority of the African Americans taking the test scored at levels that classified them as “morons.” In reality, most of them were simply people who had not had much access to education. The Military Struggle The engagement of these forces in combat was intense but brief. Not until the spring of 1918 were significant numbers of American ground troops available for battle. Eight months later, the war was LIFE IN THE TRENCHES For most British, French, German, and General John Pershing over. Under the command of Gen- ultimately American troops in France, the most debilitating part of eral John J. Pershing, who had only recently led the unsuc- World War I was the seeming endlessness of life in the trenches. Some cessful American pursuit of Pancho Villa, the American young men lived in these cold, wet, muddy dugouts for months, even years, surrounded by filth, sharing their space with vermin, eating Expeditionary Force—although it retained a command mostly rotten food. Occasional attacks to try to dislodge the enemy structure independent of the other Allies—joined the from its trenches usually ended in failure and became the scenes of existing Allied forces. terrible slaughters. ( National Archives and Records Administration) 612 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE in the trenches was almost indescribably terrible. The south. By July 18, the Allies had halted the German advance trenches were places of extraordinary physical stress and and were beginning a successful offensive of their own. discomfort. They were also places of intense boredom, On September 26, the American fighting force joined a laced with fear. By the time the Americans arrived, morale large assault against the Germans in the Argonne Forest on both sides was declining, and many soldiers had come that lasted nearly seven weeks. to believe that the war would be virtually endless. By the end of October, despite Meuse-Argonne Offensive Although the American forces had trench experiences terrible weather, they had helped of their own, they were very brief compared to those of push the Germans back toward their own border and had the European armies. Instead, the United States tipped the cut the enemy’s major supply lines to the front. balance of power in the battle and made it possible for Faced with an invasion of their own country, German the Allies at last to break out of their entrenched positions military leaders now began to seek an armistice—an and advance against the Germans. In early June 1918, immediate cease-fire that would, they hoped, serve as a American forces at Château-Thierry assisted the French prelude to negotiations among the belligerents. Pershing in repelling a German offensive wanted to drive on into Germany itself; but other Allied Château-Thierry that had brought German forces leaders, after first insisting on terms that made the agree- within fifty miles of Paris. Six weeks later, after over a mil- ment little different from a surrender, accepted the lion American troops had flooded into France, the Ameri- German proposal. On November 11, 1918, the Great War cans helped turn away another assault, at Rheims, farther shuddered to a close. NETHERLANDS NORWAY North Sea ENGLAND SWEDEN er R GREAT. ov l dt GERMANY D Sche BRITAIN of Brussels it GERMANY ra R. St s London RUSSIA Ypres Ly NETHERLANDS Berlin BELGIUM BELGIUM Ypres-Lys Offensive Aug. 19–Nov. 11 e R. Meus Paris LUXEMBOURG Vienna FRANCE AUSTRIA- HUNGARY SWITZ. ns Somme Offensive ai Aug. 8–Nov. 11 ITALY nt ou M es LUX. SPAIN nn de Ar Cantigny May 28 Aisne-Marne Allied nations Neutral nations Aisne R. FRANCE R. Offensive e July 18–Aug. 6 Mosell 2nd Battle Central Powers National boundaries, of the Marne 1914 R. July 18–Aug. 6 Areas occupied by Verdun e is Central Powers O Marne R Rheims BATTLES. Meuse- Territory gained in Belleau Wood Argonne German offensives, June 6–26 Allied victories Offensive spring 1918 Oisne-Aisne Château- Sept. 26–Nov. 11 Paris Offensive Thierry St. Mihiel TROOP MOVEMENTS FRONT LINES Aug. 18–Nov. 11 June 3–4 Offensive Sept. 12–18 U.S. troops Battle line, R July 18, 1918. e Sein 0 50 mi Other Allied forces Armistice line, 0 50 100 km Nov. 11, 1918 AMERICA IN WORLD WAR I: THE WESTERN FRONT, 1918 These maps show the principal battles in which the United States participated in the last year of World War I. The small map on the upper right helps locate the area of conflict within the larger European landscape. The larger map at left shows the long, snaking red line of the western front in France—stretching from the border between France and southwest Germany all the way to the northeast border between Belgium and France. Along that vast line, the two sides had been engaged in murderous, inconclusive warfare for over three years by the time the Americans arrived. Beginning in the spring and summer of 1918, bolstered by reinforcements from the United States, the Allies began to win a series of important victories that finally enabled them to begin pushing the Germans back. American troops, as this map makes clear, were decisive along the southern part of the front. ◆ At what point did the Germans begin to consider putting an end to the war? For an interactive version of this map, go to www.mhhe.com/brinkley13ech21maps  AMERICA AND THE GREAT WAR 613 The New Technology of Warfare 1.5 million; Italy, 460,000; and Russia, 1.7 million.The num- World War I was a proving ground for a range of military ber of Turkish dead, which was surely large, was never and other technologies.The trench warfare that character- known. In Britain, one-third of the men born between ized the conflict was necessary because of the enormous 1892 and 1895 died in the war. Similarly terrible percent- destructive power of newly improved machine guns and ages could be calculated for other warring nations. Even higher-powered artillery. It was no longer feasible to send greater numbers of men returned home with injuries, troops out into an open field, or even to allow them to some of them permanently crippling. The United States, camp in the open. The new weaponry would slaughter which entered the war near its end and became engaged them in an instant.Trenches sheltered troops while allow- only in the last successful offensives, suffered very light ing limited, and usually inconclusive, fighting. But technol- casualties in contrast—112,000 dead, half of them victims ogy overtook the trenches, too, as mobile weapons—tanks of influenza, not battle. But the American casualties were and flamethrowers—proved capable of piercing en- very high in the battles in which U.S. troops were cen- trenched positions. Most terrible of all, perhaps, new trally involved. chemical weapons—poisonous mustard gas, which re- quired troops to carry gas masks at all times—made it THE WAR AND AMERICAN possible to attack entrenched soldiers without direct combat. SOCIETY The new forms of technological warfare required elab- The American experience in World War I was relatively orate maintenance. Faster machine guns needed more brief, but it had profound effects on the government, on ammunition. Motorized vehicles required fuel and spare the economy, and on society. Mobilizing an industrial parts and mechanics capable of servicing them.The logis- economy for total war required an unprecedented degree tical difficulties of supply became a major factor in plan- of government involvement in industry, agriculture, and ning tactics and strategy. Late in the war, when advancing other areas. It also required, many Americans believed, a toward Germany, Allied armies frequently had to stop for strenuous effort to ensure the loyalty and commitment of days at a time to wait for their equipment to catch up the people. with them. World War I was the first conflict in which airplanes played a significant role.The planes themselves were rela- Organizing the Economy for War tively simple and not very maneuverable; but anti-aircraft By the time the war ended, the United States government technology was not yet highly developed either, so their had spent $32 billion for expenses directly related to the effectiveness was still considerable. Planes began to be conflict. This was a staggering Financing the War constructed to serve various functions: bombers, fighters sum by the standards of the time. (planes that would engage in “dogfights” with other The entire federal budget had seldom exceeded $1 billion planes), and reconaissance aircraft. before 1915, and as recently as 1910 the nation’s entire The most “modern” part of the military during World gross national product had been only $35 billion. To War I was the navy. New battleships emerged—of which finance the war, the government relied on two devices. the British Dreadnought was perhaps the most visible First, it launched a major drive to solicit loans from the example—that made use of new technologies such as tur- American people by selling “Liberty Bonds” to the public. bine propulsion, hydraulic gun controls, electric light and By 1920, the sale of bonds, accompanied by elaborate power, wireless telegraphy, and advanced navigational patriotic appeals, had produced $23 billion. At the same aids. Submarines, which had made a brief appearance in time, new taxes were bringing in an additional sum of the American Civil War, now became significant weapons nearly $10 billion—some from levies on the “excess prof- (as the German U-boat campaign in 1915 and 1916 made its” of corporations, much from new, steeply graduated clear).The new submarines were driven by diesel engines, income and inheritance taxes that ultimately rose as high which had the advantage of being more compact than a as 70 percent in some brackets. steam engine and whose fuel was less explosive than that An even greater challenge was organizing the economy of a gasoline engine. The diesel engine also had a much to meet war needs. In 1916, Wilson established a Council greater range than ships powered by other fuels. of National Defense, composed of members of his cabi- The new technologies were to a large degree responsi- net, and a Civilian Advisory Commission, which set up ble for the most stunning and horrible characteristic of local defense councils in every state and locality. Eco- World War I—its appalling level of casualties. A million nomic mobilization, according to this first plan, was to men representing the British Empire (Britain, Canada, rest on a dispersal of power to local communities. Australia, India, and others) died. But this early administrative structure soon proved High Casualty Rates France lost 1.7 million men; unworkable. Some members of the Council of National Germany, 2 million; the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, Defense, many of them disciples of the social engineering 614 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE gospel of Thorstein Veblen and the “scientific manage- would convert to the production of which war materials ment” principles of Frederick Winslow Taylor, urged a cen- and set prices for the goods they produced.When materi- tralized approach. Instead of dividing the economy als were scarce, Baruch decided to whom they should go. geographically, they proposed dividing it functionally by When corporations were competing for government organizing a series of planning bodies, each to supervise a contracts, he chose among them. He was, it seemed, pro- specific sector of the economy. The administrative struc- viding the centralized regulation of the economy that ture that slowly emerged from such proposals was domi- some progressives had long urged. nated by a series of “war boards,” one to oversee the In reality, the celebrated efficiency of the WIB was railroads, one to supervise fuel supplies (largely coal), something of a myth. The agency was, in fact, plagued by another to handle food (a board that helped elevate to mismanagement and inefficiency. Its apparent success prominence the brilliant young engineer and business rested in large part on the sheer extent of American executive Herbert Hoover). The boards generally suc- resources and productive capacities. Nor was the WIB in ceeded in meeting essential war needs without paralyzing any real sense an example of state control of the economy. the domestic economy. Baruch viewed himself as the partner of business; and At the center of the effort to rationalize the economy within the WIB, businessmen themselves—the so-called was the War Industries Board ( WIB), an agency created in dollar-a-year men, who took paid leave from their corpo- July 1917 to coordinate govern- rate jobs and worked for the government for a token War Industries Board ment purchases of military sup- salary—supervised the affairs of the private economy. plies. Casually organized at first, it stumbled badly until Baruch ensured that manufacturers who coordinated March 1918, when Wilson restructured it and placed it their efforts with his goals would be exempt from anti- under the control of the Wall Street financier Bernard trust laws. He helped major industries earn enormous Baruch. From then on, the board wielded powers greater profits from their efforts. (in theory at least) than any other government agency The effort to organize the economy for war produced had ever possessed. Baruch decided which factories some spectacular accomplishments: Hoover’s efficient CAPTION TO COME  AMERICA AND THE GREAT WAR 615 organization of domestic food supplies,William McAdoo’s try, for example, grew rapidly on the West Coast. Employ- success in untangling the rail- ment increased dramatically; and because so many white Lessons of the Managed roads, and others. In some areas, men were away at war, new opportunities for female, Economy however, progress was so slow African-American, Mexican, and Asian workers appeared. that the war was over before many of the supplies ordered Some workers experienced a significant growth in for it were ready. Even so, many leaders of both govern- income, but inflation cut into the wage increases and ment and industry emerged from the experience con- often produced a net loss in purchasing power. The agri- vinced of the advantages of a close, cooperative re- cultural economy profited from the war as well. Farm lationship between the public and private sectors. Some prices rose to their highest levels in decades, and agricul- hoped to continue the wartime experiments in tural production increased dramatically as a result. peacetime. One of the most important social changes of the war years was the migration of hundreds of thousands of Labor and the War African Americans from the rural South into northern industrial cities. It became known The growing link between the public and private sectors “Great Migration” as the “Great Migration.” Like extended, although in greatly different form, to labor. The most migrations, it was a result of both a “push” and a National War Labor Board, established in April 1918 to “pull.” The push was the poverty, indebtedness, racism, resolve labor disputes, pressured industry to grant impor- and violence most blacks experienced in the South. The tant concessions to workers: an eight-hour day, the main- pull was the prospect of factory jobs in the urban North tenance of minimal living standards, equal pay for women and the opportunity to live in communities where blacks doing equal work, recognition of the right of unions to could enjoy more freedom and autonomy. In the labor- organize and bargain collectively. In return, it insisted that scarce economy of the war years, northern factory owners workers forgo all strikes and that employers not engage dispatched agents to the South to recruit African-American in lockouts. Membership in labor unions increased by workers. Black newspapers advertised the prospects for more than 1.5 million between 1917 and 1919. employment in the North. And perhaps most important, The war provided workers with important, if usually those who migrated sent word back to friends and families temporary, gains. But it did not stop labor militancy. That of the opportunities they encountered—one reason for was particularly clear in the West, where the Western Fed- the heavy concentration of migrants from a single area of eration of Miners staged a series of strikes to improve the the South in certain cities in the North. In Chicago, for terrible conditions in the underground mines.The bloodi- example, the more than 70,000 new black residents came est of them occurred just before the war. In Ludlow, disproportionately from a few areas of Alabama and Colorado, in 1914, workers (mostly Italians, Greeks, and Slavs) Mississippi. walked out of coal mines owned by John D. Rockefeller. The result was a dramatic growth in black communities Joined by their wives and daughters, they continued the in northern industrial cities such as New York, Chicago, strike even after they had been evicted from company Cleveland, and Detroit. Some older, more established black housing and had moved into hastily erected tents. The residents of these cities were unsettled by these new state militia was called into the town to protect the mines, arrivals, with their country ways and their revivalistic reli- but in fact (as was often the case), it actually worked to gion; the existing African-American communities consid- help employers defeat the strikers. ered the newcomers coarse and feared that their presence Joined by strikebreakers and others, the militia attacked would increase their own vulnerability to white racism. the workers’ tent colony; and in the battle that followed, But the movement could not be stopped. New churches thirty-nine people died, among Ludlow Massacre sprang up in black neighborhoods (many of them simple them eleven children. But these storefronts, from which self-proclaimed preachers events, which became known as the Ludlow Massacre, searched for congregations). Low-paid black workers were only precursors to continued conflict in the mines crowded into inadequate housing. As the black communi- that the war itself did little to discourage. ties expanded, they inevitably began to rub up against white neighborhoods, with occa- Economic and Social Results of the War sionally violent results. In East St. Race Riots Whatever its other effects, the war helped produce a Louis, Illinois, a white mob attacked a black neighborhood remarkable period of economic growth in the United on July 2, 1917, burned down many houses, and shot the States—a boom that began in 1914 (when European residents of some of them as they fled. As many as forty demands for American products began to increase) and African Americans died. accelerated after 1917 (in response to demand from the For American women, black and white, the war meant United States war effort). Industrial production soared, new opportunities for employment. A million or more and manufacturing activity expanded in regions that had women worked in a wide range of industrial jobs that, previously had relatively little of it.The shipbuilding indus- in peacetime, were considered male preserves: steel, 616 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE WOMEN INDUSTRIAL WORKERS In World War II, such women were often called “Rosie the Riveter.” Their presence in these previously all-male work environments was no less startling to Americans during World War I. These women are shown working with acetylene torches to bevel armor plate for tanks. (Margaret Bourke-White/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images) munitions, trucking, public transportation. Most of them others), intellectuals and groups on the left such as the had been working in other, lower-paying jobs earlier. But Socialist Party and the Industrial Workers of the World, all whatever changes the war brought were temporary of whom considered the war a meaningless battle among ones. As soon as the war was over, almost all of the capitalist nations for commercial supremacy—an opinion women working in previously male industrial jobs quit many others, in America and Europe, later came to share. or were fired; in fact, the percentage of women working But the most active and widespread peace activism came for wages actually declined between 1910 and 1920.The from the women’s movement. In Woman’s Peace Party government had created the Women in Industry Board 1915, Carrie Chapman Catt, a to oversee the movement of these women into the jobs leader of the fight for woman suffrage, helped create the left behind by men. After the war, the board became the Woman’s Peace Party, with a small but active membership. Women’s Bureau, a permanent agency dedicated to pro- As the war in Europe intensified, the party’s efforts to tecting the interests of women in the work force. keep the United States from